Method of making wheels



Oct. 20, 1931. SPA-[TA 1,828,159

METHOD OF MAKING WHEELS Original Filed May 28, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1- G. SPATTA METHOD OF MAKING WHEELS Oct. 20, 1931.

Original Filed May 28 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Oct. 20, 1931 UNITED STATES-PATENT .OFF'ICE GEORGE SPAT'IA, OF BUCHANAN, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOB TO CLARK EQUIPMENT COM- PANY, OF BUCHANAN, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION OF MICHIGAN METHOD OF MAKING WHEELS Original applicationfiled May 28, 1928, Serial No. 280,979. Divided and application filed April 15, 1929, Serial No. 355,070. Again divided and this application filed May 14, 1930. Serial No. 452,238.

This application is a division of my pending application, Serial No. 355,070 filed April 15,1929, which is itselfa division of my pending application Serial No. 280,979, filed May 28, 1928.

The present invention relates to the method of making metal wheels, particularly of the type employing a sheet metal spider. The particular feature to which the present invention is directed is the manner of uniting the rim and spokes of a wheel of the type disclosed in my copending-application, Serial No, 246,926, filed January 16, 1928.

The spider of the wheel is preferably made of two sheet metal stampings drawn and formed to proper shape, united at their central parts to form a huh and provided with lock seams along their outer margins extending along the sides of the spokes and along the web joining the spokes. Relatively thin sheet metal as of the order of fifty thousandths of an inch in thickness is employed in the preferred embodiment oi the invention, and will be appreciated at once that joining the ends of the spokes to the metal of the rim, which rim is of the order of one hundred twenty-five thousandths of an inch in thickness, presents a problem of considerable diiliculty to secure the full strength of the parts.

@ne diiliculty is the relatively small strength of the sheet metal to sustain a load in compression because of lack of rigidity. While the spokes are preferably tubular or cylindrical in contour and present a very considerable strength in bending if properly supported, the spokes must be inserted within the rim in such a manner as to have a close fit and suitable bearing to develop the full strength of the sheet metal spider.

According to the present invention I employ an internal reinforcing member in the end of the spoke, preferably in the form of a short cylinder, the inner end of which is closed, and I weld the side walls of the end of the spoke to this reinforcing thimble at the lock seam or at other points for the purpose of uniting the thimble with the metal of the end of the spoke, and thereafter depress the web of the rim into the thimble. The internal reinforcing thimble provides the necessary hoop strength to prevent splitting or bursting of the end of the spoke and also it gives the thin metal of the end of the spoke additional bearing surface to support a column load. The web of the rim may be spot welded in turn to the end of the lock seams on the spokes to give the spider the ability to support apart of the load at the hub in tension.

In a wheel it is undesirable to depend solely upon the column strength of the spokes to support the load, although the column strength of the spokes is very considerable. I prefer to make the wheel of the suspended hub type so that the load supported thereby I is sustained by the upper spokes wheel in tension and the lower spokes in ccmpression. ll the upper spokes are in tension then it necessarily follows that the ri adjacent the upper spokes must be in com s As previously stated the metal of the m is of the order of one hundred twenty hve thousandths of an inch in thickness and unless means is provided for reinforcing the same such thin metal does not have appreciable strength in compression, since such a rim would tend to buckle between the spokes. I overcome this diiliculty by making the rim of a channel shaped cross section so that the flanges of the channel sustain the web thereof when the same is under compression. The thin web of the channel felloe also facilitates the welding of the spokes of the spider thereto' since electric spot welding may be used.

The use of a felloe formed of a thin web provided with reinforcing flanges afiords the possibility of a yielding or resilient mounting for the spider within the felloe I prefer to make the web of the channel of appreciably greater width than the diameter of the spokes so that there is considerable metal at the web of the channel between the spokes and the reinforcing flanges. In the manufacture of the wheel the spider is pressed into the felloe so that the spider is initially under a compression and the felloe is under tension. This means that under conditions of no load on the wheel the web of the channel shaped felloe has a force applied thereto by the spokes tending to force the same outwardly. Due to the natural resiliency of the thin sheet metal web there is some outward flexing thereof between the reinforcing end flanges of the channel. When the wheel is under load the lower spokes are in compression and the upper spokes in tension so that the lower spokes exert a force tending to push the web of the channel shaped felloe outwardly whereas the upper spokes exert a pull tendingto pull the web of the channel shaped felloe inwardly. Due to the spacing between the reinforcing flanges of the felloe and the spokes of the spider there will be some give in the metal of the rim adjacent the spokes. As the wheel rotates, any given spoke which previously was below and under compression comes into an upper position and therefore is placed in tenslon with the result the direction of yielding of the web of the channel shaped felloe adjacent that spoke will change. The net result obtained is a suspension efl'ect upon the hub of the wheel. In brief, the present wheel is designed and constructed so that the hub is in effect suspended between the flanges of the channel shapedrim and the stresses produced by the load are distributed throughout the entire wheel instead of being concentrated at some particular part of the wheel as in the past. As a result the various parts of the wheel may be made a good deal lighter in weight since the wheel is not subject to concentrated stresses.

In order to obtain a close fit between the ends of the spokes and the rim or felloe I make the spider of a slightly greater diameter than the internal diameter of the rim and force the spider into the rim so that the spider is under compression and the rim is under tension in the wheel as initially constructed. In order to facilitate the tensloning of the rim upon the spider I use a clamping ring of the type shown in my pending application, Serial No. 355,072, filed April 15, 1929, issued as Patent No. 1,775,659, Sept. 16, 1980, although it is to be understood that specifically different means may be used to accomplish this same end. Briefly stated, this clamping ring comprises two clamping portions which are adapted to clamp upon the opposite sides of the spider spokes at the ends thereof to support the ends during the assembly operation. The ring is preferably retained upon the spider during the operation of depressing the web of the felloe into the spokes, thus taking up the stress that would otherwise be placed upon the spokes during this operation.

In order to acquaint those skilled in the art with the manner of constructing and operating a device of my invention, I shall describe in connection with the accompanying drawings a specific embodiment of the method of making a wheel in accordance with my invention, from which the attainment of the above and other objects of the present invention will be apparent.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side view of a wheel showing the position of the clamping ring upon the spider;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 3 is an edge view of the clamping device;

' Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating the manner of making the joint between the end of a spoke and the web of the mm;

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken along the .line 55 of Figure 4 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 6 is an edge view of a modified form of wheel employing a drop center rim; and

Figure 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 77 of Figure 6 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

While in the drawings I show a wheel of the type employing a demountable rim and another wheel of the drop center rim type for receiving a tire directly, I do not wish to be limited to either specific form. The wheel shown in Figure 1 comprises a felloe 1 formed of an endless circular outwardly facing channel section having a wider flange 2, a narrower flange 3 and joining web 4. This form of rim may be bought on the open market and secured with holes 5 formed therein for receiving the clamping bolts for holding a demountable rim, as is well understood by those skilled in the art. The rim may also have holes 6 punched therein for receiving the ends of suitable wedge members employed in conjunction with bolts for holding the demountable rim in place.

The spider 7 is made of sheet metal. Two complementary stampings blanked out and drawn in dies, as disclosed in my copending application, Serial No. 280,981, filed May 28, 1928, are first formed and then joined together by tubular shouldered rivets such as the rivet 8 shown in Figure 7 and then joined together at their edges by lock seams such as i the lock seams 9 shown in Figures 5 and 7 employing suitable channel strips 10 to form the lock seams. I

The stampings employ each a central hub disc 11 joined to the web 12 by a shoulder 13, the size of this shoulder varying for hubs of different depth or thickness. A central III) opening 19 is formed through the hub and the opening is defined by inturned flanges 14-14, formed on each of the plates 11. The plates 111l'areoonnected by the shouldered hollow rivets 8 having the heads 1515 beaded over and lying in the depressions in the plates 11 so that the heads 15-15 do not project beyond the outer surface of the plates 11. The stampings areprovided with outwardly extending or curled flanges 17-17 as may be seen in Figures and 7, these curled flanges extending on the sides of the spokes 1818, and the parts of the web 12 between spokes, and the U-shaped channel strips welded to the side walls of the spoke ends,

preferably as indicated in Figure 4, by a spot weld at 22 extending through the lock scams 9. if desired, the welding or the thimbles 20 to the ends of the spokes may be performed by spot welding on each side of the lock seams 99. However, it is advantageous to weld through the lock seams in order to weld the flanges and the channel strip 10 together at this point.

After the spider is completed it is gripped in a two-part clamping ring, the parts being applied on opposite sides and gripping the ends of the" spokes, and then the spider with the clamping ring thereon is pressed laterally into the rim 1 to insert the spider 1n the rim.

The clamping ring 33 is a split clamp made up of similar halves 3i and 34 having radial holes or slots 35 fitting closely the ends of the spokes. The two halves of the ring are held together by the clamping screws 37 so as to hold the spider securely. l he clamping members 34 and 34 are chamfered oil at 38 r and 38 to provide conical surfaces and have cylindrical parts 39 and 39 of a width slight- 1y greater than the diameter of the spokes, so as to support firmly each of the spokes, particularly around the outer edges of the spokes upon closing of the clamp. The diameter of the clamping rings at 39 is substantially equal to or slightly less than the diameterof the spider.

' After the spider with the thimbles in the ends of the spokes has been inserted in the rim 1, and before the clamping device has been removed from the wheel, the wheel is placed in a press, the clamping ring being suitably supported by the bed of the press, and a punch is forced against the web 4 of the channel to de rose the web into the inter1or of the thim les 20 as indicated at 32.

.This is done while the clamp supports the web and the end of the spoke 18, the clampmg r ng taking the endwise thrust and also sustaining the radial pressure about the wheel. Thereafter the web 4 is welded to the ends of the lock seams 9 as indicated at 25. Since a thimble is employed in the ends of the spokes the web of the felloe may be forced into the spokes under considerable pressure, that is, with a relatively close press fit so as to place the rim under tension and the spider un er considerable compression. Where welds are formed between the outer ends of the spokes and the web of the rim, the load of the hub may be carried partly in tension by the upper spokes and partly in compression by the lower spokes. If desired the weld 25 may be omitted, in which case it is not possible to sustain a part of the load under tension of the upper spokes. However, as stated above, in the preferred form, the weld is present at 25. i

In Figures 6 and 7 I have shown a wheel having a drop center rim 30. Such a rim or felloe is well known in the art and may be purchased on the open market. This rim is adapted to receive a tire directly thereon. This rim may be employed in connection with a spider such as has been previously described, the wheel being formed in the same manner as is the wheel shown in Figures 1 and 2. This type or" rim is adapted to have a tire bear directly upon the web l of the same. l he depressions 32 are relatively shallow and occupy such a small portion of the surface of the web 4 that they are not at all objectionable insofar as concerns the rubber tire.

While I have herein shown and described a preferred manner of carrying out my invention, this is merely illustrative and I do not intend to be limited to the precise steps shown and described, as it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that numerous deviations will be permissible within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

' What I claim is:

1. ,The method of making a sheet metal wheel which comprises forming an endless circular rim of outwardly facing channel section, forming two sheet metal stampings comprising hub and spoke portions, joining the two registering stampings by lock seams extending along the sides of the spokes at the meeting edges of the stamping, inserting into the ends of the spokes thimbles with their open ends substantially flush with the ends of the spokes, welding the thimbles to the spokes, forcing the spider laterally into the rim, depressing the web of the channel into the open ends of the thimbles to form a. closure therefor and to tension the rim upon the spoke and hub structure, and welding the spoke, and depressing the web of the rim into the open end of the thimble.

3. The method of connecting a hollow sheet metal spoked spider with a channel shaped rim which comprises inserting into the ends of the spokes a closed ended thimble with its open end substantially even with the end of the spokes, supporting the end of the spoke in a rigid clamp substantially flush with the end of the spoke, forcing the clamp and the spider as a whole unit into the rim to tension the rim onto the spider, supporting the rim adjacent a spoke, depressing the web of the rim into the open end of the thimble, and welding the end of the spoke to the rim.

4. The method of making a wheel which comprises, forming an endless circular rim of outwardly facing channel section, forming a spider comprising hub and spoke portions of complementary sheet metal stampings, uniting the edges of the stampings along the spoke and hub portion by lock seams, inserting a closed ended thimble into the spokes with the open end of the thimble substantial- 1v flush'with the end of the spoke, forcing the spider laterally into the rim to tension the rim onto the spider, supporting the end -of the spoke by jaws gripping the end of the spoke from the sides thereof, and pressing the web of the channel into the open end of the spoke while the spoke is supported by said clamping jaws.

5. The methodof making a wheel which comprises, forming an endless circular rim of outwardly facing channel section, forming a spider comprising hub and spoke portions of complementary sheet metal stampings, uniting the edges of the stampings along the spoke and hub portion by lock seams, inserting a closed ended thimble into the spokes with the open end of the thimble substantially flush with the end of the spoke, forcing the s ider laterally into the rlm to tension the rim onto the spider, supporting the end of the spoke b jaws gripping the end of the spoke from t e sides thereof, pressing the web of the channel into the open end of the spoke while the spoke is supported by said 0 amplng jaws, and then welding the web of the channel to the lock seamed portions of the spoke.

6. The method of assembling a sheet metal spider and a rim which comprises inserting 

